Lenovo Uses Microsoft Search

(Beijing) Lenovo Group Ltd. became the first computer maker to agree to
pre-load Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live toolbar and make its search portal
the main service on all new computers worldwide.

The deal announced by the two companies Wednesday could help Microsoft
in its bid to compete with Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. for traffic.

Google leads the Internet search industry with a 54 percent share of
the market, followed by Yahoo with 23 percent, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Microsoft's search engine is in third place with 8.9 percent of the market.

Lenovo, the world's third-largest PC manufacturer and maker of the ThinkPad
line of notebooks, will load Microsoft's toolbar on laptop and desktop
computers, the companies said. The toolbar includes one-click access to
Microsoft's Live Search service.

The deal also makes Live.com the main portal on Lenovo computers. Users
are free to change the default settings to use Google or another search
engine, but many don't bother.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Leading computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. has a deal with Yahoo, while
No. 2 Dell Inc. has a partnership with Google.